爆料学徒

Aaron Mansfield

Shams Charania， the College Senior Breaking NBA News in Class.

沙姆斯·查拉尼亚，一个是在课堂里爆料NBA新闻的大四学生。

Shams Charania breaks NBA trades on the shuttle between his colleges campuses. He tweets signings in class. Not-always-understanding professors watch as he steps out to take the occasional phone call from an important source.

沙姆斯·查拉尼亚坐在往返大学校区的大巴里爆料NBA的交易消息。上课时，他在推特上发布签约信息。一脸状况外的教授偶尔看到他走出教室，接听一个重要消息源的电话。

Charania， a senior at Loyola University Chicago who turned 22 in April， is one of the most prolific NBA news breakers today.

作为今年四月刚刚过完22岁生日的芝加哥洛约拉大学大四学生，查拉尼亚如今已经成为NBA最能爆料的记者之一。

Announcing his hiring in December， Yahoo！ called him a“wunderkind.” ESPNs Ramona Shelburne has nicknamed him “Doogie Howser.” Adrian Wojnarowski， Charanias boss at The Vertical， Yahoo！s basketball site， says hes the “best young basketball reporter on the planet.”

去年12月宣布聘用他时，雅虎网站称他为“天才”。ESPN的拉莫娜·谢尔伯恩给他起了个Doogie Howser①的绰号。查拉尼亚在雅虎篮球网站The Vertical的老板亚德里安·沃齐纳斯基说他是“地球上最优秀的年轻篮球记者”。

“When I went into it， I didnt want anyone to know how old I was，”Charania says. “Its easy to mask how old you are if you approach things the right way.”

“当我进入这一行时，我不想让别人知道我有多大。”查拉尼亚说，“如果用正确的方法做事，想伪装年龄就很容易了。”

With news-breaking spearheaded by Wojnarowski and his new understudy， The Vertical has flexed in the first free agency since the site launched in January. They beat ESPNs television coverage to every draft pick. They were first to the news of Dwyane Wade and Al Horford and， were it not for the nature of The Players Tribune， probably wouldve had Kevin Durant， too.

在沃齐纳斯基和他的新预备队员的带领下，1月成立的The Vertical在成立后的第一个自由球员市场上展示了自己的实力。选秀时，他们爆料每一个顺位新秀人选的速度都比ESPN的电视直播快。他们是第一个爆料德维恩·韦德和艾尔·霍福德新闻的网站。如果不是因为“球员论坛”，凯文·杜兰特的决定也很可能由他们第一个爆出。

If you hadnt seen Charanias name before this summer， you almost certainly have by now. His follower count has jumped from about 33，000 to 73，000 since June 20 because Shams （rhymes with “Woj bombs”②） has been all over some major deals.

就算今年夏天之前没听过查拉尼亚的名字，几乎可以肯定，现在的你已经知道他了。6月20日后，他的推特粉丝数从33000人飙升到73000人，因为Shams（和Woj式炸弹押韵）爆料了很多重大新闻。

He broke Dwight Howard to the Hawks， DeMar DeRozan re-signing with the Raptors， Luol Deng to the Lakers and Jamal Crawford re-signing with the Clippers. ？Consider this free agency period his coming-out party.

他是最先爆出德怀特·霍华德去老鹰、德玛尔·德罗赞与猛龙续约、卢尔·邓签约湖人和贾马尔·克劳福德续约快船的人。我们不妨把这次自由球员市场看作他扬名立万的派对。

But Charania has never worked or interned for a newspaper. He doesnt have a fancy degree. He didnt start with any industry connections. So how did this happen？

不过沙姆斯从未在任何一家报纸工作或实习过，他也没有知名大学的文凭，最开始时，他在篮球圈没有任何关系网。所以这一切是怎么发生的呢？

How did he go from one of a million NBA-obsessed teenagers to 22-year-old media phenom？

他是如何从数百万痴迷NBA的青少年中脱颖而出、成为一个22岁的媒体大咖呢？

Charania has quietly built a network of sources over four years of fulltime reporting. Glued to his phone， he sends hundreds of texts and emails each day. Even when hes not looking for news， he regularly checks in with his sources—players， agents， and team executives.

在四年全职报道NBA的过程中，查拉尼亚悄悄建立起了一个消息源网络。他寸步不离自己的手机，每天都会发送数百条短信和电子邮件。即便不为了获取新闻，他也会定期和自己的消息源联系——这些消息源包括球员、经纪人和球队管理人员。

“Obviously there are people who just dont know，” he says. “Why are you always on your phone？ Why are you always texting？ Get a life.I love that aspect （of always being on the phone）. I dont even consider it work because I would be doing it anyway. I would be scrolling RealGM or HoopsHype.”

“显然有人理解不了。”他说，“为什么你总在看手机？为什么你总在发短信？做点有意义的事吧。我喜欢那样（总是看手机）。我甚至不觉得那是工作，因为我反正也是要看手机的。我要么在看RealGM要么在看HoopsHype。”

Agents and players have connected with his humble， trustworthy nature. Though he wont reveal much about how he has built his rolodex， Charania says going to games and meeting people in person has been critical to making connections.

经纪人和球员喜欢他谦逊、值得信赖的性格。尽管他不会透露构建关系网的方法，但查拉尼亚说，去看比赛、和别人面对面交流是建立联系的关键。

He started small， breaking international， D-League， and 10-day contract news. One relationship led to another.

他先从小新闻做起，从国际篮球、发展联盟和十天短合同这些消息做起。一个关系帮助他结识到下一个关系。

His career started at 18. As a high school senior writing for his school paper， he reached out to ChicagoNOW， a subsidiary of the Chicago Tribune. They allowed him to write daily Chicago Bulls recaps.

他的职业生涯开始于18岁。作为校报的资深写手，他联系到了《芝加哥论坛报》下属的ChicagoNOW，他们允许查拉尼亚撰写芝加哥公牛的每日简讯。

“At that point youre just looking for any platform，” says Charania. “It could be a viewership of like 100 people， but as long as youre getting the reps in， thats what it was about to me.”

“那个时候就是寻找任何平台。”查拉尼亚说，“可能看文章的也就100人，但只要名声打出去就行了，我就是这样想的。”

Using his clips from ChicagoNOW， Charania contacted RealGM， a basketball site he and his friends followed religiously. Chris Reina， RealGMs executive editor， allowed him to write wire news and analysis. Impressed by Charanias work ethic and professionalism， Reina offered him a full-time， salaried reporting job less than a year later.

利用ChicagoNOW的经历，查拉尼亚联系了RealGM这家被他和他的朋友视作信仰的篮球网站。RealGM的执行主编克里斯·雷纳让他撰写通讯和分析。被查拉尼亚的职业精神和专业素质打动，不到一年后，雷纳为他提供了一份全职、带薪的报道工作。

“He was very clear from the start what he wanted his career to look like，” Reina says. “At that age， he wanted to be a basketball reporter， and he was using Wojnarowski as a model for how to do it.”

“从一开始他就很明确自己想要什么样的职业生涯。”雷纳说，“那个年纪他就想做篮球记者了，而且他把沃齐纳斯基看作榜样。”

Charania says Wojnarowski is “the blueprint to sports journalism， period.”

查拉尼亚说，沃齐纳斯基是“体育新闻的蓝图，没有争议”。

The Bulls gave him a credential， but revoked it when they discovered he was 19. The team had a policy against giving press passes to college students.

公牛给了他一个采访证，但是在发现他只有19岁时又取消了他的采访资格。公牛的政策是不给在校大学生发放媒体证件。

Charania found another solution： he started driving 90 minutes each way to cover the Milwaukee Bucks， a smaller-market team with less media demand. Hed hang around after press scrums and try to grab a player for a one-on-one conversation.

查拉尼亚找到了另一个解决办法：他单程开车90分钟，去报道密尔沃基雄鹿队，这是一个小球市球队，采访要求不多。他会在媒体群访结束后留下，试图对球员进行一对一采访。

It was also in Milwaukee that Charania met some of his journalism idols. He introduced himself to Wojnarowski and Lee Jenkins， among others. Wojnarowski， who recalls introducing himself to Bob Ryan as a recent college grad at the 1994 NBA Draft， took a liking to the driven 19-year-old.

也就是在密尔沃基，查拉尼亚见到了几个他的新闻偶像。他向沃齐纳斯基和李·詹金斯等人做了自我介绍。回想起1994年NBA选秀时作为刚从大学毕业的人向鲍勃·莱恩自我介绍的沃齐纳斯基，在这个动力十足的19岁孩子身上看到了自己的影子。

“You could tell right away he was very serious-minded about it and obviously far ahead of his years in how he was carrying himself and what he was investing into it，” says Wojnarowski.

“你马上就能看出，他是很认真地对待这件事，而且明显表现得非常成熟。”沃齐纳斯基说。

Charanias big moment with RealGM came in 2014， when he broke the news of Luol Deng being traded from Chicago to Cleveland. Many veteran NBA reporters were hounding the story， but Charania got it first.

查拉尼亚在RealGM的重大时刻出现在2014年，那时他爆出了卢尔·邓被公牛交易到骑士的消息。很多老派NBA记者都在打探这个消息，但第一个爆料的却是他。

Hes made the occasional minor error， sure—for example， reporting Tony Wroten and the Knicks were finalizing a three-year deal when Wroten ended up signing for two years—but his record of accuracy is impressive.

当然，有时候他也会犯很小的错误。比如，他报道称托尼·罗滕和尼克斯达成三年合同，而罗滕实际只签约两年。不过他爆料的准确性已经相当优秀了。

“I think a lot of reporters throw stuff against the wall based on thirddegree information， whereas everything he was getting was directly from the source—the actual player， agent， or team，” says Reina. “Its not a guy from the Celtics saying something about the Spurs.”

“我觉得很多记者都是通过第三方信息爆料，而他报道的所有消息都是直接来自于真正的球员、经纪人或球队。”雷纳说，“而不是什么凯尔特人的人说马刺会怎么样。”

In the time it took for Charania and Reina to catch up over lunch in San Francisco last month， Charania broke two pieces of news： David West declining his player option and Ian Clark being listed inactive for Game 5 of the NBA Finals.

上个月在旧金山，和雷纳见面吃午饭叙旧的工夫，查拉尼亚就发出了两条新闻：大卫·韦斯特拒绝了球员选项，伊安·克拉克在总决赛第五场的状态被确定为“不激活”。

Less is demanded of him during the school year. Though he stays on full-time salary， Wojnarowski says the job is secondary to schoolwork. Charania is majoring in communications with a concentration in journalism. Still， its hard to keep him from working.

上学期间他的工作要求比较少。尽管拿的是全职薪水，但沃齐纳斯基表示，学习比工作更重要。查拉尼亚的专业是传播学中的新闻。尽管如此，想让他不工作太难了。

“Woj is a great judge of talent and hes a great mentor，” says Jenkins.“Even though I dont work there， I think of him as a mentor also. I think early on， he saw in Shams he did it the right way. I think it reminded Woj of the way he did it.”

“Woj很会识别人才，他是个非常优秀的导师。”詹金斯说，“即便我不在那里工作，我也把他看作导师。我想他很早就发现沙姆斯在用正确的方法工作，我觉得那让Woj想起了过去的自己。”

“If were doing our job， its to develop him in a full way，” says Wojnarowski. “He will be the news breaker in the NBA—whether its tomorrow or next year or five years from now. Hes going to be that. But he could be a lot more， and thats my job， to help him in all those facets.”

“如果我们做好自己工作的话，那就是让他全面发展。”沃齐纳斯基说，“他当然会成为NBA的爆料人——无论是明天、明年还是五年之后。他会成为那样的记者。但他还可以做得更多，而那就是我的工作，在各个方面帮助他。”

Charania frequently mentions how “honored” and “grateful” he is to work with The Vertical staff. “I love our team，” he says. He doesnt like drawing attention to himself. He wonders why anyone would want to write about him.

查拉尼亚总是提到，和The Vertical团队合作，他感到“很荣幸”、“很感激”。“我爱我们的团队。”他说。他不喜欢为自己吸引关注，他不知道为什么有人想写和他有关的文章。

As a journalist， mastering and balancing the human element of sport is a rare gift. As Charania has proven， a reporter who grasps this reality can achieve remarkable things—regardless of age.

作为记者，掌握并平衡行业中的人性因素是一种罕见的天赋。而查拉尼亚已经证明，把握了这种现实的记者可以取得了不起的成就——无论他的年纪有多大。

“This business is always about building trust with someone，” Charania said. “I would never want to shortcut anything. Ive never considered anything to be just about the scoop…the whole name of this game and life in general is about relationships， period. And thats what Ive always tried to value first and foremost.”

“这个行业的重点总是建立他人的信任。”查拉尼亚说，“我永远不想走捷径。我从来不认为任何事仅仅是爆料……这项运动的本质、包括人生，其实都是人际关系。而这就是我一直以来最重视的一点。”

①Doogie Howser是美剧《天才小医生》里的主人公，这部剧曾火爆一时，其中Doogie Howser的扮演者是尼尔·帕特里克·哈里斯。

②Woj Bombs源自Wojnarowski的姓，由于经常在推特上甩出爆炸性新闻，沃齐纳斯基的推文被人冠上了Woj Bombs的外号。